Parsons staff member Yasi Ghanbari is showing her performative video piece ‘Social Innovation’ in the group exhibition, ‘I Amaze Myself,” at Common People gallery in Brooklyn.
Ghanbari often appears in her own videos, performing versions of herself that continuously contradict. In ‘Social Innovation’ (2014), an attempt is made to be socially proactive with minimal effort – to reap the good feelings or profit from participation in activism, while remaining entirely a slave to the capitalist construct. In the video, Ghanbari documents an actual phone call with a Warby Parker customer representative on the veracity of their socially conscientious policies. The performance for video humorously highlights the relationship between object-libido (a pair of Warby Parker glasses) and ego-libido (Freudian textbook narcissism).
I AMAZE MYSELF
Common People
112 2nd Ave #11 Brooklyn, NY 11215
November 13 – November 28, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, November 13, 7-10pm
Open 1 – 6 pm Saturdays & Sundays or by appointment
Common People. is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Vincent Dermody, Yasi Ghanbari, Raychael Stine, and Caleb Yono. Employing instagram as post-internet art, painting, sculpture and video, each artist fully commits to the reflection of self in their chosen medium. And yet, none of the artists actually approach the self with much seriousness. As a result, warm caricatures serve as foil to the larger underlying issues of death, love and our social good. Together, the works explore the aesthetics of narcissism, self-deprecation, humor and object fixation.
Vincent Dermody (American, b.1973) is a painter and a sculptor who makes subconscious mosaics that aspire to the condition of magic. Since 1997 he has also curated shows internationally with the artist Robert Davis under the moniker Law Office, most recently at Anonymous Gallery in Mexico City and the Newd Art Show in Bushwick.
Yasi Ghanbari is an artist living in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BA from Oberlin College and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has shown her work nationally, internationally, and on the internet.
Raychael Stine is an artist living in Albuquerque New Mexico. She holds a BFA from UTD and an MFA from UIC. Stine has exhibited at Art Palace Gallery, Houston, TX, Eugene Binder, Marfa, TX, Rhona Hoffman, Chicago, Denise Bibro Gallery, NY, Road-Agent, Dallas, Marty Walker, Dallas, Leviton A + D Gallery, Chicago IL among others. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings Issues 120 and 78-Juror’s Pick, The Texas Biennial, 2009, the Dallas Museum of Art Degoylier Grant, the Stone Award at UIC, and The Gendler Fellowship at the Bemis Center residency, and Jentel Foundation. She is professor of Painting and Drawing at the UNM.
Caleb Yono (b.1981 Ann Arbor, MI) Is an interdisciplinary artist living in Chicago. He recently graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an MFA in painting and drawing. He has shown and performed extensively in Chicago with recent performances at the Terrain Bianual in Oak Park as well as Art Expo Chicago 2015. He will be performing at David Wienberg Photography in December and will be a HATCH resident for 2015-2016.
